


Bonded

by Blue_Hood



Series: Not What They Seem [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Souled Vampire(s), Supernatural Elements, Vampire Bites, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 01:30:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19367440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Hood/pseuds/Blue_Hood
Summary: Tony Stark adjusts to life as a vampire's favorite human.





	1. Chapter 1

The first time Tony felt the craving, it took the form of a physical pull drawing him to Clint. "Help."

The blond raised an eyebrow before muttering "Oh crap," and sinking his teeth into Tony's wrist. The relief combined with the high made the inventor collapse during the feeding.

When he woke up, he was leaning against Clint on a couch, kinda like when the archer put him to sleep during a binge. "What happened?"

The immortal answered bluntly, "We went too long without feeding, the bond forced you to find me. Though you apparently didn't notice the subtle pull of craving, the relief combined with the high of the bite made you collapse."

"I noticed, I didn't realize that's what it was."

"If you don't do better, I'll have to try a schedule."

"Me do better? This is your life, how'd you not notice?"

"Like Bruce and anger, the hunger never fully goes away. I just don't completely fast when I have a willing source."

Tony asked irritably, "Blood bags don't work well, why?"

"They work fine, just takes more for a proper meal and that's without the bond. I have to ration them, I doubt I'm the only customer my dealer has."

"Dealer?"

"Vampires are real, Tony. I'm not the only one, by the way. Blade uses a serum but I can see some vampires finding the whole seduction thing tedious and just going with the blood bags."

"You make vampires sound like pricks."

"When you start to get the craving, let me know and I'll tell you if it's the bond, okay?"

"You're starting to sound like a prick."

"You're the one who collapsed with their wrist in my mouth."

"Fair point."

"Imagine if you were pulled like that in the middle of a board meeting."

"Pepper would kill me and you'd have to go on another year-long fast."

"Our bond is new, I'd probably only fast for half a year. After all, I'd known and been bonded to Phil for many years." Smirking, Clint leaned down to whisper to Tony "I got more action from him than his cellist."

Tony sat up so fast he headbutted Clint "Really? Agent?"

Clint nodded "Let's just say his office is a lost cause for salvation, though that's partly because he breathed bureaucracy more than most bureaucrats, believe it or not."

Looking out over the city, Tony realized they were on Clint's floor, "You're making me think bureaucracy is an innuendo."

Clint shrugged as he stood, disappearing into his kitchen "Phil and I only happened once. He tried to let me down easy with the let's keep our relationship professional line then I reminded him I regularly drank his blood and he said 'we don't want that getting out' like it wasn't his secret too."

"Wow, I can totally see that."

"I need to check something," Clint came back with a blue box.

"How many of those do you have?"

"Old vampire trick, hide everything in plain sight. Gag gifts are a godsend because it buys us variety but misdirection works just as well. Someone asks 'why do you have that?' I ask 'why do you know what it is?' Things like that."

"Alright but seriously, how many?"

Clint shrugged, "I didn't have this one before we bonded but I figured I'd have to handle the little things, no offence but you're no Phil."

"None taken, what does that even mean?"

"Phil took care of things I never even thought of, such as finding the UV frequency that hurt me so we could carefully avoid it. He also kept some supplies to check his blood in his desk, hiding in plain sight as some old spy toys which he was known to collect. Finger," with a sigh, Tony let Clint do his thing.

"How many first aid kits do you have? I know you have a regular one and now this one, what other colors you got."

Clint smiled, "I have a green one for vampire gadgets, like the capsules I slip into food. I can put them in almost any food. Ask Bruce how I prepare blood for meals, I did it when I met with Pepper just to show her how easy it is to hide blood. Got a whole pint and aside from the pellets I swallowed like mints, which she caught jokingly, she never saw anything." With a small prick of blood after taking off the finger-monitor, Clint managed to do a whole work up in minutes.

"Neat trick," commented Tony.

"You wanna recreate it for the company?"

"If there's not already a patent, sure. Do you need to borrow-" he was cut off by Clint handing him another one from the blue box. "You never answered how many of those color coded boxes you have?"

"I'll be honest, I'm not going to. Never was. Come on over and see for yourself while I fix you some food."

Tony followed him over, Clint left the cupboard he put the blue box in open for him to see. "You remember what all these colors mean?"

"Remembering how a system I made works is hardly a miracle for me, I'm immortal remember."

"Yeah, still cool." Tony closed the cupboard and sat down on a bar stool while Clint flitted around "Do you keep the blood in your freezer?"

"Yes but for a real quick snack, I use the bags above the stove."

"I've noticed something, you always close doors as soon as you're done."

"So? Leaving doors open is a mistake I've stopped making."

"Right, weird for humans not for vampires."

Clint turned his attention to the inventor once the food was underway "Have I told you how I became a vampire?"

"Nope."

"I was cursed, Tony. Not bitten and turned, certainly not born this way, I was literally cursed to be this. There are some advantages to this, though,"

"Like what?"

"Day-walking. My curse doesn't make me exactly like other vampires, obviously, it leaves room for some humanity. I believe this was intentional."

"Like you have some great destiny?"

"Like the one who cursed me didn't want me to be a monster. However the curse was flawed," Giving Tony a Gatorade, he asked "How's the sequencer?"

"Huh," Tony tipped the bottle away from his mouth to speak.

"The thing that looks like a copier but can be used to alter blood."

"Oh, that, I have to be careful."

"Because it's on loan?"

"Because it's alien technology!" Clint raised an eyebrow, "I checked, no patent office anywhere has seen anything like it. I'm analyzing the components, taking fabricated replicas apart and putting it back together, working my way up to reverse engineer the whole thing."

"I hope that handheld doesn't give you so much grief, the sooner that's replicated the sooner medical centers everywhere can streamline. I'm sure at least one of the tests that does takes weeks to get back from the lab. Far as I know, that's a bigger target market. Since both are testing devices, you shouldn't step on too many toes."

"Right," he found Clint calming. Maybe because the archer was never in a rush, even when he was pretending to be a human Avenger. "Hey, what exactly happened to Romanoff?"

Clint shrugged "I don't know. She would've killed me with her stunt on the Helicarrier if I'd been human, and she didn't know I wasn't, then she coolly takes credit like she knew exactly what she was doing, grated on my nerves but I couldn't do anything until you knew." A thought occurred "She got you to hack my phone for that battle, didn't she?"

"You weren't answering, why did you end up answering?"

"I was trying to hit snooze because that's the ringtone you gave yourself, the alarm sound."

"Right, forgot about that since I changed it back."

"I changed it back, you forgot to."

"Right."

After eating together, Clint scented Tony on his way out.


	2. Chapter 2

When Tony woke up to the craving, he wondered why he even fell asleep then remembered he isn't on schedule yet. As he moved to get up, Pepper mumbled in her sleep "Tony?"

"I'll be right back." Slipping out of the room, he found Clint on the archer's floor, waiting with chicken nuggets. "You can sense when," Tony trails off.

"Not really but vampires are nocturnal by nature, making me semi-nocturnal as a daywalker."

"Alright, how does this work?"

"I feed, you get relief along with the high and that part of the bond resets."

Tony held out his wrist and Clint flashed his fangs before biting down. Unlike last time, the relief from the craving is overridden by the high from the bite. As Clint removed his fangs, his hands latched onto Tony's elbow to hold the arm in place while he licked the bite. Letting go, Clint said "Downside of feeding from the wrist, it doesn't heal as well."

"Ah," Tony looked at his wrist "Licking helps?"

Clint shrugged and pushed the pan of chicken nuggets toward Tony, "Upside of biting from the wrist is I'm not scenting as I feed like I would with your neck."

"Interesting."

Clint scratched the back of his neck, "Mind if I do? Scent?"

Tony looked up from his food and shook his head before continuing to eat "I couldn't exactly stop you if you really wanted to."

Clint put the space between them "It's totally your choice."

Giving him a cocky grin, Tony stood up straight from leaning over the nuggets and said "I know, I'm a bit of a pessimist."

"A pessimist would be resigned not accepting," corrected Clint.

"Whatever. Go ahead and scent, not like it does anything to me." Clint shot forward, nose on Tony's neck before stepping back, disappointed. "What's wrong?"

"Your scent is back to normal," Clint crossed his arms.

"Am I supposed to just know what that means?"

With a sigh, Clint explained "Your scent changes briefly after a feeding. Maybe it's an after effect of the high, I don't know because vampires never ask why. God, I feel like that's a catchphrase. The changed scent is why I'm always gonna want to scent you right after a feeding, it's my high."

"You don't get high off eating," began Tony.

"Feeding," Clint corrected.

"Makes sense," finished Tony before asking "What's wrong with the way I said it?"

Clint picked up a nugget to eat "This is eating." After swallowing, he pointed to Tony "What I do to you is feeding and don't try to argue so soon after, you might find yourself questioning that in a few hours. I believe Pepper is expecting you back in bed, no need to make her worry."

"Right," that was the end of that.


	3. Chapter 3

The day after Clint's midnight feeding, Tony found the vampire waiting in the penthouse for him and Pepper with breakfast. The smiling blonde handed Pepper a latte along with a paper bowl filled with oatmeal and a plastic spoon. "Thank you, Clint." She gave him a peck on the cheek on her way out.

Tony asked "Why are you here?" Clint simply pushed a plate of pancakes forward, inviting Tony to eat. "I know how to feed myself."

"No, you don't. I expected some of the alcoholic tang from your insomnia but if you're not getting nutrients then your blood isn't doing me any good and as you'll recall, I can't feed from anyone else."

"Oh." Tony sat down to eat "Alcohol gives blood a tang."

"Let's just say I can taste the difference between drunk and sober, leave it at that."

"I'm sorry."

"I'll be honest, because once you know my secret I do my best to always be honest, alcohol doesn't make blood bad for me. That was a lie I told after consulting Pepper but if you're drunk then you're not eating and we wind up in this mess."

"Mess?"

"You won't get on a proper schedule if the nutrients in your blood varies. I don't know about the craving but that messes up how often I need to feed. So I'll make you a deal,"

When Clint didn't continue, Tony asked "What deal?"

"Whenever I give you food, you eat it."

"In exchange?"

"I might be able to make myself unavailable to put you to sleep during a binge. Honestly, if I could have things my way then you'd let me do both, feed you and treat your insomnia but I don't wanna be greedy. Can't have your cake and eat it too or so the saying goes."

"If you're doing this all for my benefit then I don't see a reason to stop. You already defer to others on when to put me to sleep and honestly, I like that."

"I have a calming effect on you as your scent has a calming effect on me."

"Exactly."

"What about scenting?  You asked what I'd give in exchange, I need a proper trade."

"Is that some vampire rule?"

"Vampires don't consider humans equal."

"Right. What about scenting?"

"I know you're not a big fan." He held up a hand "Before you try to insist otherwise, remember not only can I hear your heartbeat and smell your emotions shift, I'm also more in tune with you than any other human."

"Alright. I think I'll get used to it."

"If you don't want to, that's fine. I can always get your scent from things or sneak a scenting in with the bite."

"How about this? Pepper has a company to run so JARVIS doesn't have anyone to help him carry out his primary directive, which is to take care of me. So, how about we make that the trade?"

"I don't understand, I already do that."

"Exactly. We'll just toss in feeding me with helping JARVIS."

"Okay." Clint confessed "I could technically control you, vampires can do that to stable food sources."

"You mean like force feed or like take away my free will?"

"More the latter but not quite total control like whoever was behind the invasion."

"O-kay."

Clint shrugged.


End file.
